Commentary

 

Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings

This list of Memorable Occurrences in Swedenborg's Writings was originally compiled by W. C. Henderson in 1960 but has since been updated.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Conjugial Love #260

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260. 24. As coldness develops in the mind, so it also develops in the body; and in the measure that this coldness grows, the outward aspects of the body close up as well. It is believed today that a person's mind is in his head and nothing of it in his body. Yet both soul and mind are not only in the head but in the body; for the soul and mind are the person, it being these two that constitute the spirit which lives after death. (We have fully shown in other works that this spirit exists in perfect human form.) It is because of this that as soon as a person has a thought, he can in an instant express it with the mouth of the body and represent it simultaneously in gesture; and as soon as he wills something, he can in an instant do it and accomplish it by means of parts of the body. None of this would be possible if the soul and mind were not at the same time in the body, constituting the person's spiritual self.

This being the case, it can be seen that when conjugial love exists in the mind, there is a reflection of it in the body. Also, that because love is a type of warmth, it descends from within and opens the outer parts of the body. Conversely, however, it can be seen that the absence of this love, which is coldness, descends from within and closes up the outer parts of the body.

This makes clearly apparent the reason ability lasts to eternity in the case of angels, and the reason for its failure in men in a state of coldness.

  
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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.